Development officials back plan for apartments on Spaghetti Warehouse site
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- Plans to build apartments where Spaghetti Warehouse once stood are gaining support from Columbus development officials, including a commissioner who praised the design as "one of the best I've seen."
The downtown commission's April 22 meeting included a review of the proposal, which calls for two seven-story buildings with 250 apartments to be constructed at 397 W. Broad St., the property home to Spaghetti Warehouse before it was demolished in February. Commissioners lauded the plans as "an amazing step forward," and said they're likely to be supportive moving forward. Watch a previous NBC4 report on the Spaghetti Warehouse in the video player above.
Designed by Columbus architecture firm Moody Nolan, the complex will be named "The Macklin" in honor of a 19th-century hotel that operated on the site until the 1950s. Once completed, the two buildings are meant to mimic two halves of a geode crystal that has been split.
"We have this brick outside, we pulled the building apart to kind of create an interior that's a little more industrial, like to have a subtle nod to the idea of crystals," said Jon Guldenzopf, a Moody Nolan design leader. "So, the outside's wrapped with brick and then exposes a sort of industrial inside that's both metal [and] industrial, but also has this crystallin undulating façade."
The development is also set to include a first-floor bar called Crystal, named after an ice manufacturing company built in 1891 that operated on the property for several decades. The first two floors will house the complex's 277-space parking garage and some amenities, like a fitness center and a co-working space.
The third floor of each building will feature an "amenity deck," with the north building's deck home to an "Ice Cube Amenity Lounge" and the south building's deck including a pool. The Macklin's upper residential floors will house 35 studio units at 465 square feet, 153 one-bedroom units at 596 square feet, and 62 two-bedroom units at 896 square feet.
"We obviously want this to be special, so we worked with the Moody Nolan team for over a year and different iterations of this building and we're very pleased with the work they've done," said Patrick Kelley, co-owner of the project and president of real estate company Falco, Smith & Kelley.
Developers introduced plans in January 2024 to demolish the Spaghetti Warehouse building to make way for an apartment development, which at the time called for 534 units and a 577-space parking garage. Last October, the Ohio Department of Development awarded $52 million for demolition projects across the state, including the Spaghetti Warehouse.
Doug Pak, another co-owner of the project and CEO of the Spaghetti Warehouse chain, noted during the April meeting that the project is much smaller than first imagined because "of the reality of the market conditions." Pak argued the team is doing "the best we can with a smaller scope," while promising to still deliver on components like affordability.
Kelley emphasized that effort, and said the development is aiming "to do as much affordability here as is practically possible." The team will be deciding how many units are dedicated to affordable housing and how many to market-rate in the coming months.
"We have a very strong interest in the affordability factor; we recognize the need is tremendous in central Ohio, and our goal is to do as much affordability as we can, above and beyond what's typically required," Kelley said.
The project is also owned Robert Weiler of the Robert Weiler Company, who joined Kelley and Pak in calling for the Spaghetti Warehouse's demolition in 2022 given the building was "simply too old and unsafe." Known for its historic trolley that was saved from demolition to become a learning tool honoring a central Ohio transportation inventor, Spaghetti Warehouse has since reopened Downtown.